Crashed early last night. Woke up not quite as coughy.
Six crows this morning.
And a gull.
And some smaller birds.
And a hard-to-see thieving bastard.
Never a shortage of flowers.
And in the end, the morning coffee ritual. Still playing with the ratio.
Full moon low on the horizon this morning.
Well, nearly full.
Six crows.
One of them likes to land nearby and just look up at me.
Expectantly, almost.
None of the usual thieving bastard suspects, but plenty of the usual flowers.
The head of lettuce is looking a bit worse for wear.
For this morning’s coffee ritual, I halved the amount of chicory coffee used.
Still coughing this morning. Which is irritating.
Gonna be a long day.
Up a bit earlier this morning, but still light out.
The moon setting, the sun rising.
Twenty-five crows, not a bad number.
A couple of gulls off in the distance, but they seemed uninterested in us.
And there were flowers. Plenty of flowers.
No cacti, thankfully.
Followed by my morning coffee ritual.
We switched sugar substitutes. Sucralose is way sweeter than allulose.
Which I learned the hard way…
Started the walk on a hopeful note.
But ultimately, only about ten came down to earth.
And unlike yesterday, not a one was inclined to come up close.
But they did all follow me home.
Unlike the thieving bastards. They tried to blend in, but I sussed out at least two.
What the world lacked in crows, it made up for with flowers and the moon.
And while there was no frost this cold morning, there were dew drops.
But most importantly, at the end of this journey, my morning coffee ritual.
Out a bit earlier this morning, so mostly dark at the beginning and no crows.
Which was a blessing in disguise.
Instead of focusing on crows flying around me to photograph, I was paying attention to the dog and my immediate surroundings.
So when a car started backing out of its driveway directly towards Doggo, I was able to tug the snuffling beast to safety.
That would have been a very bad day.
Very bad.
I still had to photograph something, so here are some crescent moon shots.
And some flora.
And oblivious Doggo snuffling away.
And a rare Corona set in the wild!
And a very soon to be absent friend.
Finally, my morning coffee ritual.
And in the end, after I’d enjoyed my coffee?
Big Daddy and Little Lady called out to me, demanding their peanuts.
With Doggo safely inside, I obliged them.
Up early, so out early.
Which means it was not only cold on our walk, but dark.
So, no crows.
And a lot fewer pictures.
(You don’t have to be so happy about it!)
And here are a couple flowers, as the lighting improved:
At the very end, a single crow appeared but did not approach.
And then, my morning coffee ritual.
POST MORNING COFFEE RITUAL ADDENDUM:
Three crows showed up in the backyard, including Big Daddy and Little Lady.
They got their peanuts.
And since the light was better, and the lawn was frosted, you get your ice photos!
I know. Exciting.
Left at the ‘usual’ time for our walk this morning.
Not dark.
No crows until about halfway through.
Then there were six, but they seemed wary and didn’t come down from the tree.
That started to change about two-thirds of the way through.
By the time I got home, over thirty.
Waiting and not shy.
When the first peanuts landed, it was a blur of motion.
I kept an eye out for beauty and inspiration as per usual.
Found some mushrooms.
Then, a swirling cloud of caws behind me, it was time for my morning coffee ritual.
No crows or squirrels this morning.
Too dark for the cowards.
We left early, but not as early as yesterday.
My photo options were limited again by the lack of light.
Up super early, fretting about going back to work.
No crows, no squirrels, no nothing.
Because we took our walk over an hour early, and it was still dark.
So, not much to photograph, and what there was, the cell phone camera couldn’t handle.
So now I’m back home, trying to enjoy my morning coffee ritual before heading in early to deal with the 1000+ emails and whatever other drama has been festering while I was away.
ian m dudley 